The invention relates to text-based communications over a data network.
Packet-based data networks are widely used to link various types of network elements, such as personal computers, servers, gateways, network telephones, and so form. Data networks may include private networks (such as local area networks or wide area networks) and public networks (such as the Internet). Popular forms of communications between network elements across packet-based data networks include electronic mail, file transfer, web browsing, and other exchanges of digital data.
With the increased capacity and reliability of packet-based data networks, voice communications (including telephone calls, video conferencing, and so forth) over data networks have become possible. Voice communications over data networks are unlike voice communications in a circuit-switched network, such as a public switched telephone network (PSTN), which provides users with dedicated, end-to-end circuit connections for the duration of each call. Communications over data networks, such as IP (Internet Protocol) networks, are performed using packets or datagrams that are sent in busts from a source to one or more destination nodes. Voice data sent over a data network typically shares network bandwidth with conventional non-voice data (e.g., data associated with electronic mail, file transfer, web access, and other traffic).
Although voice communications over data networks are becoming more available, text-based communications such as electronic mail, instant messaging, and text chat continue to be popular forms of communications between users over data networks. In using electronic mail, there typically exists some delay in getting a response from a destination user. The delay includes the amount of time for the electronic mail message to get from the originating user to the destination user, the time a user takes to respond to the electronic mail message, and the time to propagate the response back to the originating user. A destination user may not be sitting at his or her station, or the user may decide not to respond to the electronic mail until some later time. The originating user does not receive any indication of this, typically having to wait for a response, which may come much later.
A more real-time mechanism of communicating between users is provided by text chat sessions or instant messaging. Bolt instant messaging and text chat sessions are communications services that allow two or more users to establish real-time communications sessions in which text messages may be exchanged on an interactive basis. Typically, to establish a text chat or instant messaging session, users may have to log on to a third party server, referred to as a chat server in some arrangements. Alternatively, text chat or instant messaging sessions are available between users that subscribe to the same service provider, which in effect provides the common server or servers for the users. Without a centralized server through which users are logged into, text chat or instant messaging sessions may not be available to some users.
Furthermore, many local networks are protected by firewall systems that prevent unauthorized access from a public network such as the Internet. As a result, a remote user may be unable to reach a user in a local area network protected by a firewall system to establish a text chat or instant messaging session.
A need thus exists for a more robust method and apparatus for text-based communications over data networks.
In general, according to one embodiment, a method of providing a text-based chat session over a data network includes establishing an audio-based call session between at least two network elements over the data network, and exchanging a text-based chat message over the data network during the call session.
In general, according to another embodiment, a method of providing a text-based communications session over a data network includes creating one or more messages according to a protocol for establishing audio-based call sessions, receiving a user-entered text string, and providing the user-entered text string in the one or more messages. The one or more messages are then sent over the data network to a target network element.
Some embodiments of the invention may have one or more of the following advantages. A more flexible technique is provided for establishing text-based chat sessions over a data network. Such text-based chat sessions may occur within or outside an audio-based call session to provide for enhanced flexibility. In addition, by using a signaling path of an audio-based call session for the text-based chat session, additional call setups are not needed Further, the signaling path of the audio-based call session may also provide a path through a firewall system for the text-based chat session.
Other features and advantages will become apparent from the following description, from the drawings, and from the claims.